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A major issue hindering Bitcoin is uncertainty about its future. The debate is over whether Bitcoin will be a successful long run innovation or fizzle out like so many prior innovations. It is possible to make a relatively accurate prediction about the future of Bitcoin by analyzing five factors successfully used by technology adoption experts for decades: relative advantage, compatibility with other innovations, experience through trialability, complexity and observability. These factors, derived from the classic work of innovation diffusion theorist Everett Rogers, when combined with features unique to Bitcoin, suggest that Bitcoin is here to stay.. Relative advantage Relative advantage in the field of innovation is defined as the improvements of a product as compared to its predecessors. Improvements include, but are not limited to, economic or social advantages measured in time, convenience, satisfaction or monetary benefits. Specific examples could be better service, consolidation of multiple functions into one tool, empowerment of users, improved interface, increased productivity, reduced user effort, saving money, saving space or storage and saving time. A major advantage Bitcoin has over other payment systems is that Bitcoin has a decentralized ledger. A decentralized ledger means that a single party is no longer in control of the records of previous transactions. …

Ethereum Classic has become the fifth largest cryptocurrency in the world after surpassing the market cap of Litecoin. Briefly, Ethereum Classic also overtook NEM, the fourth largest cryptocurrency with a significantly high daily trading volume. The daily trading volume of Ethereum Classic remains larger than Ripple and NEM, the third and fourth largest cryptocurrencies behind Bitcoin and Ethereum, at $326 mln. In fact, Ethereum Classic’s daily trading volume is 17 times larger than that of NEM. Simply Classic Over the past few months, Ethereum Classic has enjoyed an explosive growth in demand and daily trading volume primarily due to two major driving factors: the debut of the Ethereum Classic Trust and the integration of ETC by leading digital currencies. On April 24, Barry Silbert-led Digital Currency Group, arguably the most prominent investment firm within the Bitcoin and Blockchain industries, launched the Ethereum Classic Trust to provide a platform for accredited and institutional investors to invest in ETC via a regulated channel. Since then, Ethereum Classic has experienced an overall increase in demand, price, market cap and trading volume. By April 1, Ethereum Classic’s market cap was around $200 mln. In less than two months, the market cap of Ethereum surged …

Blockchain analytical tools and services are both a blessing and a curse, according to Bitcoin industry experts. The Bitcoin community is divided into two camps: those who embrace the transparent aspect of the blockchain and financial transactions, and those who want to use anonymizing services to cover their tracks. Unmasking Bitcoin transactions could throw a monkey wrench into the plans of that second category of users, and Sabr.io aims to do exactly that. SABR.io – Identifying and Locating Criminal Activity The business model associated with the Sabr.io service is noble and honorable, as the company wants to eliminate any criminal activity associated with virtual currencies. Achieving that goal will not be easy, yet Sabr.io is confident in their ability to monitor multiple blockchains and detect any discrepancies or strange behavior. But that is not all, as SABR will also integrate data from public and proprietary sources. All of this is made possible thanks to the company’s unique and strategic partnerships in the digital currency world, which provide SABR with information that would otherwise be inaccessible. Collaboration with law enforcement to track down illicit Bitcoin users will be a major step forward towards legitimizing digital currency. Gathering all of this …

Many people are drawn to Bitcoin and virtual currencies for the illusion of being able to move funds around in an anonymous way. However, with the blockchain acting as a transparent ledger, there is no such thing as anonymity in the Bitcoin space. Unless Bitcoin users actively use mixing and anonymizing services, that is. But do these services harm Bitcoin’s public image, or are they beneficial to the ecosystem? Bitcoin Mixers and Anonymizing Services: Even More PR Problems The transparency associated with Bitcoin and other virtual currencies is something companies are more than happy to embrace. Accounting becomes a lot easier, and there is no way to hide any illegal activity on the blockchain. Plus, there is still a certain level of pseudonymity, as all Bitcoin users are identified through a wallet address, without publicly exposing any personal information. Despite all of these positive features, Bitcoin still has a public relations problem, as most people see the virtual currency as a safe haven for money laundering, fraud, and illegal trading. Such a train of thought is quite odd, as Bitcoin is not anonymous and is one of the worst possible options to launder money. Additionally, there is no chance …

This article was taken from the June 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED’s articles in print before they’re posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online. At least one global cryptocurrency will achieve mass-market adoption. That cryptocurrency will either be Bitcoin or a derivative inspired by it. The chance that it will be the former is so strong that in 2014 I invested in Bitcoin startups Xapo and Blockstream. And yet, perhaps surprisingly, when one of the very smart people I know in Silicon Valley recently told me he’s a major “Bitcoin sceptic” who has not yet seen “many real use cases” for the technology, I considered it a good sign. Why? Because in my experience, the most transformative ideas are not the ones that achieve broad consensus early on. Instead, they’re the ones that are so uniquely out there, so contrarian, that even informed observers have wildly differing opinions regarding their potential value. The internet itself was like this. It started as a strange new parallel universe called “cyberspace” and then became a part of everyday life. LinkedIn, eBay, Twitter and Airbnb were all bizarre concepts at first, …

Bitcoin hoarding has been dubbed as one of the “major problems” hampering the adoption growth of this disruptive digital currency. While there are over 14 million bitcoins in circulation at the time of publication, only a fraction of that amount is changing hands on a regular basis. As a result, there are a lot of coins not moving to different owners, leading to various addresses “hoarding” bitcoins. Also read: New Economy Movement Focuses on Equal Opportunities Consumers not Incentivized to Spend Bitcoin One of the more common reasons for the Bitcoin hoarding problems can be blamed on lack of incentives for consumers to spend Bitcoin. While merchants are reaping the benefits from paying lower transactions fees on Bitcoin transactions, the everyday consumer is still paying the same amount for goods and services, rather than receiving a discount. On top of that, the number of merchants accepting Bitcoin payments is still fairly low, despite that number increasing over time. Despite there being lower transactions fees for merchants, as well as the option to has Bitcoin transactions converted to fiat currency and receiving the money in their bank account the next business day, most people are still wary of Bitcoin. At this time, …